Starmer to Count Rural Broadband as Defence Spending to Get Round NATO Rules
Keir Starmer is set to count rural broadband and Heathrow’s third runway as defence spending to circumvent NATO rules as the Government makes plans to redraw the definition of national security. The Telegraph has the story.
The Government’s national security review, due to be published before a NATO summit next week, will expand the definition to include economic stability, food prices, supply chains, crime and the internet.
It could allow the UK to hit NATO’s new defence spending target of 5% of GDP without committing any further public money.
Mark Rutte, NATO’s Secretary General, has proposed member states spend 3.5% on core defence activities and a further 1.5% on related infrastructure.
Ministers are considering meeting the latter target by spending money on roads, strengthening bridges and increasing runway capacity, the Telegraph understands.
Cyber, energy and telecommunications security projects will also be offset against the goal.
While NATO countries will still be required to hit 3.5% of core defence spending each year – far higher than Sir Keir’s current pledge of 3% by the next Parliament – the additional 1.5% will come from other budgets.
The plans, first reported by Bloomberg, will include various infrastructure projects that have already been announced as “national security” spending, including a third runway at Heathrow Airport that is estimated to cost at least £42 billion.
Other projects to be allocated to the “defence” budget for NATO’s accounting purposes could include Project Gigabit, a £5 billion plan to upgrade rural broadband services, and a £1 billion pot to upgrade weak bridges and build the Lower Thames Crossing tunnel.
Relabelling a bunch of not really defence-linked projects that you were going to do anyway wouldn’t seem like the most effective way to prepare for the new militarised world order.
Worth reading in full.
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I doubt an accounting trick will appease NATO, let alone DT – obvs it doesn’t actually improve our offensive or defensive capability either
The government of Kneeler-the-Contemptible gets more and more deranged every day. And no, this isn’t a comment on this article.
Sir kneel looking like an utter plonker again, I mean who signs off his photo ops?
Mr Starmer (aka- ‘action man’):”Does my head look big in this”?
What a joke government.
That’s clearly the handwriting of a lawyer: Make more of an effort to look compliant with the letter of the law while keeping to do exactly as you were.
Oh my, he wears anything that makes him look important at the time!
Please 🙏 end this misery and give us back our country!
Re Project Gigabit and ‘defence spending’, that must be the reason why neither councils locally, nor the government nationally, will intervene and take effective steps to stop neighbourhoods being over run by the likes of IX Wireless, who erect more and more telegraph poles, ugly cabinets and the horrendous ginormous masts to promote their internet services.
As far as I’m aware, they are not focusing on allegedly poorly provided rural areas to increase internet facilities, which will be an expensive exercise. Instead, they are after quick wins but in already well-provided areas, saturating towns and littering pavements with their unwanted equipment.
The farcical Project Gigabit was probably always intended to align with future dubious government plans. It just so happens its proposed link to ‘defence’ has come to light during the tenure of the adenoidal tool currently residing in number 10.
Like lots of government initiatives, it seems to have been successful in redistributing public monies to private concerns. Unfortunately, that seems to be one of the main objectives of every government.
A helmet in a helmet
We might as well allocate NHS spending as defence spending. This is how we get on to a ready for war footing/new militarised world order!